Upgrade
by theopshop
Summary: Gaige has a surprise for Claptrap. Some spoilers for Claptastic Voyage and Tales from the Borderlands.


"C'mon, minion, what's the surprise?"

Claptrap hopped up and down on his wheel, spinning madly in the air. He hated being teased like this.

"If I told you," said Gaige, "it wouldn't be a surprise."

Gaige had never had this much space to herself before. For the last few weeks she, despite apprehension from several of Sanctuary's citizens (including herself), had been the new proprietor of Scooter's Sanctuary franchise. After news of the mechanic's death broke, the other mechanics and engineers of the planet (of which there were very few – Scooter had filled that role so admirably that nobody quite knew what to do without him) had determined that they would keep as many of his garages open as possible, still under the franchise name of "Scooter's". Gaige got Sanctuary, the Springs lady got Hollow Point. Ellie had been thinking about moving anyway, so she agreed to take the Badass Crater. The rest were still a little up in the air – they'd work it out soon enough.

While Gaige's new duties included maintenance of the city's ancient engines (which, she had already noted, were absurdly inefficient – typical Dahl technology), meaning she wasn't able to go out on missions as much as she'd like, it did give her time to tinker with some pet projects of her own.

"While I finish up here," continued Gaige, "tell me about your Vault hunting on Elpis again." She lowered her welding helmet.

"Oh, it was great!" exclaimed the little robot. "Jack turned me into an awesome killing machine with awesome and totally not random and annoying combat protocols and my friends totally loved me for it I'm pretty sure and then all six of us took Helios back from Dahl and opened a Vault and fought massive monsters and it was awesome and then Jack sent us all inside my head to get some more awesome stuff out because my head holds awesomeness and then Jack shot me and I woke up on the Southern Shelf with Hammerlock and I wanted to live in Liar's Berg but they didn't want me to so I make a house in the ice and then I met you and you know the rest."

"Mmm, right," said Gaige, who had heard the story about fifteen times now, given she was apparently the only person who would listen. "So after you met Jack, what modifications did he make to you?"

"Well, he destroyed most of my memories and my door-opening protocols to make room for my combat code. He installed his awesome VaultHunter executable, which was awesome and totally didn't keep glitching and making everyone bounce up and down. And he gave me a new wheel, which was awesome too! I could jump higher, and I could sprint, and I could even climb stairs! Ahh..." Claptrap sighed, and looked vaguely into the distance. "Those were the days. I remember how, on Helios, there were stairs everywhere – and I didn't even blink at them! Not that I can blink. And in Concordia…"

Gaige removed her helmet and gloves while Claptrap babbled on. She straightened up, picked up the large metallic item from the ground in front of her, turned around and put it down in front of Claptrap.

"… and it was awesome to jump so high, and cause I don't need to breathe I could -" Claptrap stopped talking as his eye fell upon Gaige's upgrade. For the first time since Gaige had known him, the robot was completely speechless.

"Well?"

"Wha… bu… how did you -"

"I hacked into the Hyperion ECHOnet the other day, cause I was bored. They kicked me out pretty quickly, but I snagged the schematics for this before they did. Now turn around."

Gaige turned the rusty screws holding Claptrap's back panel in place and carefully levered it off. She lowered her goggles.

"You might feel a slight pinch." She tugged gently at a wire.

"Ow!" exclaimed Claptrap, before collapsing forward onto the ground. Gaige carefully set to work removing the inferior wheel and replacing it with the new one.

After a few minutes, she plugged the robot's power cable back in and powered him back up. Within a few seconds, Claptrap sat up, groaning.

"Aah… I must have had some dodgy motor oil last night." He noticed Gaige looking down at him. "Oh, hey, minion. You wouldn't believe the dream I just had. You were in it, too. Wait -" The robot looked down at the new wheel and shouted with surprise. "My wheel! It wasn't a dream! Woohoo!"

Claptrap, suddenly full of energy, shot over to the stairs leading to the mezzanine of Scooter's and climbed them easily. When he came back down to where Gaige was waiting, grinning, he was ecstatic.

"What do you think?"

"I think," said Claptrap, "that you are the best minion EVER!" He raised his right arm. Gaige raised her left arm and returned the high-five.

"Woo! I won't forget this, minion!" Claptrap shot off in the direction of the Crimson Raider HQ, leaving Gaige grinning. She wiped her hands on her overalls and set to work on a new, more efficient turbine for the city's engines.

* * *

About half an hour later, Gaige heard running footsteps approaching the garage. She looked up from her work and raised her goggles. Mordecai entered the garage at a jog, his eyes wild.

"What the hell have you done, amigo?"


End file.
